We took the girls on a whale watch out of the Provincetown Harbor yesterday.  I would say we saw about 6 individual whales, mostly humpbacks, including this cow-calf pair.  They said this is the 13th calf for this cow, whose name is Ishtar, I think.

I have some pretty good shots of several tails, this is Ishtar's tail.

It was a great day.  The girls had fun. Stephanie helped us spot the whales - "look for the green bubbles, Tia, follow the green!"  Some of the whales came pretty close to the boat, so they all got a good look at them.

If it weren't for the friggin heat, it would have been the perfect day.  Well, that and the knowledge that these whales are still at risk for extinction. And the educational portion of the day, where we got a detailed description of how global warming is preventing the food fish from growing to maturity, which impacts the whales' feeding ground, and will ultimately make it difficult for the whales to have enough food.

Some of these whales are estimated to be between 100 and 200 years old.  I find it thoroughly depressing that such innocent animals, who can easily outlive us on a bad day, could be erased from the face of the planet because of human greed and ignorance.

Now, if you will forgive me, I must go and sweat some more.  Because it's not just hot, it's friggin hot, and on top of that, I'm having a hot flash.  That smoke? that's just my head exploding...

Stay cool!